Administrator fired after Nigerian cult killings

LAGOS, Nigeria {AP} A top administrator at a Nigerian university has been fired in connection with the killings of seven students, allegedly by members of campus secret societies.

Students at Obafemi Awolowo University had been demanding the dismissal of Vice Chancellor Wole Omole since last Saturday, when the students were bludgeoned and shot to death at the normally quiet campus in Ile Ife, 160 miles northeast of Lagos.

The statement released by Education Minister Tunde Adeniran did not give a reason for Omole's firing, except to say that it was "sequel to recent events in your university."

Hundreds of students have occupied the campus administration building since Monday, saying they would not attend classes until Omole was fired for failing to address the issue of campus violence by secret societies.

The students also erected roadblocks at the university's main entrances and called for an inquiry into the killings and other activities of secret societies on campus. No classes have been held since the attack.

Secret societies have been blamed for dozens of killings, rapes, extortion, assaults and arson attacks and are widely considered the most serious problem facing Africa's largest university system.

The students killed are believed to have been targeted for their strong stand against the secret groups, which wield enormous power on some Nigerian campuses and are known here as cults.

The groups, which first formed in the 1950s to lobby for academic and political freedom, eventually turned into what were effectively organized crime societies, using threats and violence to wield power over students and sometimes administrators.